Global Nature, Global Culture (Gender, Theory and Culture Series)

Global nature, global culture Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey

SAGE Publications London www.!ngapub.co.uk

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Thousnnd Onks

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New Delhi

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Sarah Franklin, Cella lury and jnckle Stacey 2000

Contents

First published 2000 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private

List of Figures

study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced,

vii

Acknowledgements

stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the

ix

prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences

Introduction Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey

issued by the Copyright licensing Agency. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

1

SAGE Publications ltd 6 Bonhill Street, london EC2A 4PU SAGE Publications Inc

Part One I Second Nature

2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt ltd 32, M-Biock Market, Greater Kailash - I New Delhi 110 048

British library Cataloguing in Publication· data

1

Spheres of Life

19

2

Imprints of Time

44

3

Units of Genealogy

68

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library ISBN 0 7619 6598

17

Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey

X

ISBN 0 7619 6599 8 (pbk)

library of Congress catalog record available Text and cover design: barkerhilsdon

Part Two I Nature Seconded

95

4

The Global Within Consuming Nature, Embodying Health Jackie Stacey

5

The United Colors of Diversity Essential and Inessential Culture Celia Lury

146

6

life Itself Global Nature and the Genetic Imaginary Sarah Franklin

188

Bibliography

228 241

Typeset by Mayhew Typesetting, Rhayader, Powys Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire

Index

97

This book Is dedicated to our mothers:

List of Figures

Susan Franklin, Toni lury and Daphne Stacey.

1.1

Bijan's DNA perfume bottle and packaging

24

1.2

The blue planet

27

1.3

Astronaut in space

29

1.4

Third World First's 'Shared Planet' poster

31

1.5

The blue planet over the moon's horizon

32

1.6

Nilsson's famous foetus

34

1.7

The foetus 'floating in space'

35

1.8

Cell division in embryo development

39

2.1

Haeckel's genealogical tree

48

Darwin's genealogical tree

49

2.3

The Humble Bee book cover

51

. 2.2

2.4

Gesner's fossil objects

55

2.5

Cuvier's fossil beast

58

2.6

Lockheed Martin's weather prediction advertisement

63

2.7

Newbridge's network provider advertisement

64

2.8

Sun Microsystems' computer products advertisement

65

3.1

Bijan's DNA perfume advertisement

71

3.2

Wolff Olins' images of sheep to rebrand Britain

77

3.3

Seeds of Change book cover

80

3.4

Kew Gardens' Millennium Seed Bank Appeal leaflet

81

3.5

Kew Gardens' Millennium Seed Bank Appeal leaflet

82 83

3.6

Kew Gardens' Millennium Seed Bank Appeal leaflet

3.7

Heirloom-variety potatoes

84

3.8

Cover of The Economist with Dolly the sheep

89

4.1

Promega catalogue cover

4.2

British Airways tailfm

101

4.3

British Airways lunch-boxes

102

4.4

British Airways lunch-boxes

102

4.5

Costa Cookies

103

4.6

Tile Body Sllop Book, 'map of the face'

106

100

4.7

'

reci pe for longevity'

4.10

TlrCI lfocly Slrnt' !look, Tile• IJotl)' Slwp /look, Tile /Jotl)' Sllop /look, Tile Botly Sllop Book,

4.11

Diagram of the continuum of natural systems

130

4.12

'Shared Planet' conference poster

135

4.8 4.9

l llm bn Wllllll'll1M hnll· t·llunls tea tree blue corn

5.1

'One world, one store' Benetton advertisement

5.2

Young people dancing (Benetton brochure)

5.3

Jumper of many colours (Benetton brochure)

5.4

Swimsuits (Benetton brochure)

5.5

Tights (Benetton brochure)

5.6

Fabrica advertisement

5.7

'So, what is the difference?' (Colors magazine)

5.8

'Nothing' (Colors magazine)

5.9

Changing races (Colors magazine)

5.10

'Black' Queen Elizabeth II (Colors magazine)

5.11

'White' Spike Lee (Colors magazine)

5.12

'White' Michael Jackson (Colors magazine)

5.13

Race and sex (Benetton brochure)

5.14

Naked Neck chicken (Colors magazine)

5.15

New countries (Colors magazine)

5.16

Kalashnikov rifle Benetton advertisement

5.17

Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola (Colors magazine)

108 109 110 111

Ac;knowledgements

The idea for this book emerged out of a number of intersecting research and reading groups at Lancaster University and subsequently developed over the course of several years at various other institutions. We would like to thank members of the Department of Sociology, the Institute for Women's Studies and the Institute for Cultural Research at Lancaster University for supporting this project and contributing so significantly to its trajectory. We are indebted to all those who participated In the 'Giobalisation and Cultural Change' group 1992-S, especially Deirdre Boden, Mick Dillon, Paul Heelas, Scott Lash, Greg Myers, Colin Pooley, John Urry and Brian Wynne, and to the numerous colleagues in Women's Studies with whom many of these ideas were discussed, particularly Susan Condor, Lynne Pearce, Beverly Skeggs and Alison Young. Sarah is grateful to colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz, particularly Jim Clifford and Donna Haraway, for providing a forum to discuss many of the issues in this volume, and for contributing valuable insights to the arguments offered here. Celia would like to thank her new colleagues at Goldsmiths

5.18

Pirelli and Goodyear (Colors magazine)

5.19

Sony and Philips (Colors magazine)

6.1

Newsweek's 'Here Come the DNAsaurs'

199

6.2

Puppet animation technology

Incisive comments on the manuscript. Mike Featherstone's commentary significantly

203

The Making of Jurassic Park book cover

helped to reshape the final product. We would also like to thank Debra Ferreday and

6.3

208

American Museum of Natural History publicity

judith Wester for their hard work obtaining permission for the visuals reproduced In

6.4

211

Leaflet for Carnegie Collection

this book, Fiona Summers for work on the final manuscript, and the Lancaster

6.5

214

Sociology Department for financial support. The Lancaster University Photographic

College, especially Les Back and Paul Gilroy, for insightful discussions of the themes of the book. We are extremely grateful to Lisa Cartwright for her careful reading and

Unit was of valuable assistance in preparing the photographs used in this book. Finally, we are grateful to Karen Phillips, Rosie Maynard and Rosemary Campbell at _ Sage for their patience during the lengthy time it took to bring this text to print, and to justin Dyer for his enthusiastic precision in copy editing the manuscript. We are extremely grateful to the following individuals, companies and organ­ Isations for generously granting permission to reproduce the visuals in this book:

Chapter 1: Figure 1.1 (Bijan Fragrances Inc.), Figures 1.2, 1.3 and 1.5 (Institute of Noetic Sciences), Figure 1.4 (Third World First), Figures 1.6 and 1. 7 (Lcmnart Nilsson), Figure 1.8 (Department of Human Anatomy and Genetics, Oxford University).

CIUiptfr J1 l'lguro 2.2 CPOftiJ\lln hookt Ltd), Pll(urt! 2.3 (l.oguston Press), Plgure11 Mm'lln), Flgu 1·c 2.7 (Nt'wlwldl(c Nl•lwmk�), I'IHUH' 2.H (Sun Mh.:rosystcms). Clwptu 3: Fll(urc 3. I (Blinn JIIWIJ'IIIll'l'S Inc.), Figure 3.2 (Design Council), Figure 3.3 (H a rperColl lns, Sun F•·undsco), F i gu res 3.4-3.6 (Kew Gardens), Figure 3.7 (David Cavagnaro), Figur e 3.8 (TI1e Economist). Chapter 4: Figure 4.1 (Promega Biological Products), Figures 4.3-4.4 (Farish 2.4 lll1d 2.� (IIIIIVI:'I'•IIy or Chll'III(O Prc��), Jlll(lli'C 2.6 (l.ockhccd

Introduction

Associates, London), Figure 4.5 (Costa Ltd), Figures 4.6-4.10 (The Body Shop), Figure 4.12 (Third World First).

Chapter 5: Figures 5.1-5.19 (Benetton Group S.P.A. and Colors magazine). Chapter 6: Figure 6.1 (Newsweek and Universal Studios), Figures 6.2 and 6.3

This book is about the power of nature, not as a static concept or even

(Universal Studios), Figure 6.4 (The Dinosaur Society), Figure 6.5 (Carnegie

as a flexible sign, but rather as a shifting classificatory process. It Is concerned with an interdiscipli a �t-c>rctebates about changing

Collection).

� cy

definitions of nature, culture and the global. How, we ask, has the relationship between nature and culture been refigured in a global order? What might a feminist analysis of global nature and global culture look like? And what kinds of conceptual frameworks might feminist theory offer to address such questions? This book presents an account of the ways in which the global Is performed, imagined and practised across a number of locations, and we analyse these enactments as a set of effects, entities and embodiments. We consider the kinds of comparisons a global context makes possible, and the types of differentiation which It renders visible. What is at stake, we ask, in the expanding purchase of the global within the contemporary western imagination? What are the sites, limits and way­ finding devices for such a project? What are the worlds, selves, bodies or forms of life described in such a context, and how can they be articulated? We ask, for example, how nature figures in the production of global products, subjects, knowledges and communities. We consider the pasts and futures constituted by and within global­ isation, which emerge in shifting cultural economies of scale, context and perspective. We offer a feminist approach to these questions not simply insofar as nature, culture and the global are clearly all gendered domains, but also because feminist theory offers a set of techniques crucial to the understanding of contemporary forms of social and political change. Instead of offering a definitive statement or a more traditional set of findings, we provide a preliminary exploration of the workings of global nature, global culture from the point of view of feminist cultural theory. We hope to extend some of its core concerns to engage with issues that are only beginning to be discussed as gendered domains, such as the emergence of the global imaginary. This book is thus a collaboration that responds to questions we have encountered in relation to both longstanding and more recent concerns. 1 Globalisation has become one of the most widely used terms of the last decade.2 Frequently assumed to condense some of the key changes that characterise contemporary sociality, globalisatlon in much recent social theory refers to a set of processes thut nrc said to be transforming the social world nt nn unprecedented speed. Globnllslng proccsscs have been seen as Indicative of 11 shrinking of the world through

new technoloMICs nnd mohllltles, nnd the speeding up of proce��c� M longer lnhlbltcod by national ho undnrl l•s

or

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l•tr ����·1 I erence among gay people and h ow we rea l ly ... . included, thereby obscuring the range of d'ff (1994: :1) 'Terminator' is not the denomination chosen by Monsanto for this technique, which thc company sought to acq re in 1998 but instead the appellation coined and widely circulated by Canadian protest g oupm RAFI (the Rural Advancement Foundation International), which vigo�usly p t� us f th's technology For a full discussion of the Terminator technology, : &�:�) �n ;a�t d�e to the c�ntroversy surrounding various of its genctknlly ::�in:�:e� produc�s, Monsanto's life sciences division was sold to Pharmacla-Upjohn In Decem�er 1999. Interestmg1y �VI. dent in the debate about genetically modified foods In both Brituln and lhtt United States IS the presence of the unmarked brand In other words, yet another dimension nr such as Monsanto s soy produc1 to hi! brand hygiene is the necessit . n f GM brands, . r y for Idemonised introduce! by stealth. �e:��� soy at source exists In tension wllh non-GM and �: rr::� s !r�duct lines to reduce consumer anxiety by lnhr:lll llN e ;��::::fs �h:�:���::i: GM ingredients. Sometimes it turns out � brand needs a dlsg�tl;c to, �� its market, and, as in Monsanto's case, sometimes such strategies may be termlna or �er� ��� families of product. I o . som� cases with their value as forms of c rporH I In contrast, and direct .comp;fti o see;s �sed In the c�ntext of rural, subsistence ngrl�ullurw II biowealth, the pres.ervatlon essential to the sumval of many commum· rIes around the world who fear their approprlnllnn hy industry. Seed banks thus serve quite divergent interests, marked' by significant power I mI111I 1111� (Shiva, 1989, 1991). As Haraway notes: [A] seed contains inside Its coat the history of practices such as collecting, breeding, :urkc::nK, analyzing, advertising,. eat�ng, cultivating, �vcs 11Kl taxonomizing, patenting; · A seedbiochemically celebratmg, starvmg. now spren aroum produced In the biotechnological mstltutions the world contains the specifications of labor systems, p1ant1ng ca1enders, pest control procedures, marketing, land-holding, and beliefs about hunger and well-being. (1997: 129) h' of animal husbandry it was assumed only the mnlc u :��;:�;�s��;���;a���:: �:a��:!:Je1:�i:als changed the shape and colour of their ofCsprlng according to what they saw while pregnant. ���

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Notes

Haraway first draws attention to the ways in which various animals created by biotechnology occupy 'a new grammar' in her article 'When Man™ is on the Menu' (1992b). She develops this argument in more detail in relation to OncoMouse™ in Modest_ Witness@Second_Millennium (1997). 2 This is the tradition of theorists such as Butler (1990), de Lauretis (1987), Haraway (1991) and Wittig (1992), outlined in the Introduction in terms of the use of gender as a 'technology' to produce and secure difference. It is paralleled in feminist anthropology by the work of many theorists of gender and kinship who have critiqued the 'grounding function' of 'the biological facts of sexual reproduction' which naturalises gender and genealogy as after the fact of biological sex (Collier and Yanagisako, 1987; MacCormack and Strathern, 1980; Ortner and Whitehead, 1981; Strathern, 1988; Yanagisako and Delaney, 199Sa). 3 The original design for the Coca-Cola bottle was based on Marilyn Monroe's figure. The mid-1990s launch of Virgin Cola vaunted the fact that its bottle was based on Pamela Anderson's figure. The advertising trade journals made much of the 'joke' that the original version of the bottle was so 'top-heavy' as to fall over. 4 Such a relationship of the brand to the body of its founder is particularly relevant to the case of Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, whose policy of not advertising their products has led to even greater Identity between Body Shop products and the company founder (sec Kuplnn, 1995 and Chapter Four In this volume). .,

9

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II

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10

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Chapter 4

I

The Globa l Withi n

Consu m i ng N atu re, Em bodyi n g H ea lth Jackie Stacey

This chapter is specifically concerned with the embodiment of globul cultures. How do we imagine the global within? What might be meant by the subjective embodiment of the global? I shall argue thnt 'the new universalisms of global culture' have particular subject effects and modes of embodiment that depend on seconding nature to secure their appeal, even as they simultaneously display its constructedness In so doing. I shall examine the place of global cultures in the West's bid to reinvent nature, even as it simultaneously declares its death, announces the assisted basis of Its reproduc· tion, and the cultural character of its commodification. 1 Indeed, I shall demonstrate not only that these apparent paradoxes are operating within the health practices of global culture, but that they lie at the heart of their appeal. An increasing number of studies look at what have been called the cullurnl

dimensions of globalisation, 2 and yet almost none of them examine the forms of embodiment, subjectivity; fantasy and desire invoked by such dimensions. One of the welcome exceptions to this3 is Arjun Appadurai's argument that the intensification of electronic mediation and mass migration mark the world of the present not ns technically new forces but as ones that seem to impel (and sometimes compel) the work of the imagination. Together they create specific irregularities because both viewers and images are in simultaneous circulation. Neither images or viewers fit into circuits or audiences that are easily bound within local, nati ona l or regional spaces. (1996: 4)

My own concern extends the remit of debates about Imagined globnl communities nnd citizens (Anderson, 1 983) nnd t h e work of the global Imagination (Appndurnl,

1 996) to Include an analysis of the modeM of subjective embodiment they

effect. I begin my discussion with the q u es ti o n of wh a t the global means In consumer markcts, 4 for contemporary consumer cul ture I s one of the key sites in which we encounter the global on a day-to-day basis, and commodities get globalised in a number of very different ways. 5

G '*'

Consu ming the Globa l

The range of products that now depend upon the marketability of 'the global' is ever more prevalent: food and wines, cosmetics, music, clothes, airlines and information technologies. A proliferation of companies now circulate the fantasy of global parti­ cipation in their repertoire of marketing imagery, be it British Airways , IBM or the Body Shop. 6 More and more commodities invite us to take part in a global culture as we consume (see Myers, 1999a). But what exactly does the global signify in contem­ porary consumer markets, and how might this relate to changin g understandings of nature and culture? 7 Apparently unifying a world otherwise growing in disparity and inequali ty, the global sign promises access and exchange across cultural differen ce and national boundaries. 8 One way in which certain brands achieve their global status is through the scale of their availability: McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Nike or Levi's, for example, are seen as global insofar as their image is one of univers al availability. Here the global appears as the marketplace which makes the world seem smaller. This version of the global is most closely associated with the continuing success of North American domination of world markets and of the intensification of the penetration of capitalist enterprises throughout the world. Not restricted entirely to North American companies, these global products nevertheless tend to be associated with the universal expansion of capitalist interests into markets beyond the United States. The impact of their global reach hits home when North American produc ts reach pre­ viously 'protected zones', especially communist, or post-communi st, countries such as China, Hungary or Russia: Coca-Cola i n Beijing, McDonald's in Budapest or the appearence of Gorbachev in a Pizza Hut advertisement. 9 Hence, 'McDon aldisation', 'Disneyfication' and even 'McDisneyisation' have become metony mic terms for the successful Americanisation of markets across the globe (see Ritzer, 1995 and Ritzer and Liska, 1997). This version of the global is one in which the increas ed reach of capitalist markets apparently brings us all closer together, uniting us through homogeneity and a familiarity with particular brands. In the above cases, the global refers to brands which have achieve d the reputation of universal availability. They need not necessarily deploy explicitly global imagery in their marketing strategies, for they rely upon a taken-fo r-granted global scale in the universal recognisability of their brands. 10 For many other companies a more explicit use of global imagery is incorporated into their marketi ng s t ra tt�glcs (see Myers, 1 999a: 6 1 ). 1 1 This second strategy involves the advertis ing of prodUl't s t h roug h

usc of the globe Icon, IUCh 111 lhtt front cover of the promotlonnl booklet o f the genetic engineering comp11ny l ' r'l ll nt'Jo(ll (sec Figure 4 . 1 ) , 12' In Lhls l'Xurrlplc, the smnll blue globe Is pluced In front of t he pul m of the large hu mnn hum!, and both ure set against the background ol' four photographs of elemental, natural phcnomcnu: windblown sand, ripples on wntcr, a skeletal leaf and cracked, dried earth. Euch of these four photographs (l ike the four corners of the Earth) depicts some aspect of change and transformation, suggesting both the wonder, but also the limits, of nature (and in turn, perhaps, the potential of science). The human hand (raised In the gesture appropriate to an oath or a blessing) is placed in between these images of natural processes and the blue globe; as the interface between the natural and the global, here the hand is positioned to offer reassuring protection to humanity. The hand and the blue globe are shot through by a white double helix sign that runs centrally from the top to the bottom of the image, connecting these universal icons with the company's logo. This double helix icon cuts through the heart of the Earth and the hand, l ike a vein sustaining this global tree of life. In the age of genetic engineering, when scientists are often accused of playing God by interfering with nature, this i mage , shows 'man' rather than God cradling the Earth and offering hope for future generu· tions through science and technology not religionY In other words, genetic engln· eering, widely perceived as an interference with nature, is thus renaturalised through its power to perform a global good. The icon of the globe holds together a vision of 1\ natural world with the commodification of its scientific denaturalisation. Here nuture guarantees a shared meaning to global life. The global gets within through n renaturalised nature which literally makes up our genetic systems of life, nutrition and consumption. A third strategy for globalising products and companies is the use of globul Imagery without the actual presence of the globe itself. From Coca-Cola onwurds, companies have depl9yed an iconography of diversity to signify a global scule of operations. For example, advertised as 'the world's favourite airline', British A lrwoyK was rebranded as a global service iri 1997 when it deployed 'ethnic' imagery to rebrand itself within a world market ('a painter from the Kalahari Desert, a Polish fol k artist and a hand weaver from the Scottish Highlands', reported the Sunday Mirror, 15 June 1 997). Its £60 million pound image change was reported as: ' [using] designs created by dozens of artists and craftspeople from around the world for the tails of Its neet of 300 aircraft, as well as passenger printed material such as ticket wallets and luggage tags' (The Independent, 15 June 1997). 1 4 The new designs were brightly coloured, bold abstract patterns and the artists' authenticity was guaranteed through the appearance of their signature on each aircraft (The Independent, 1 5 June 1 997) (sec Figure 4.2). 1 5 ln its bid to give customers n sense of belonging to a global community us they travel, British Airways hns usl•d il'on� of locnl diversity to construct a sense of universal belonging in Its food pUl'kuglnl(. 'l 'lrt' 1\rl l lsh t\l rwnys 'Time for a Snuck' cnrdbourd lunch-box-style pnl:kage o fft-rN Jlll�lt'llgt'I'K li g h t snncks In boxes dccorutcd with a runge of 'world I mages', lndml h l j,! pllpt'l' t'l l l -ouls fronr Central l'olund, und

Figure 4.2 T/rC' /Joltl, a/Jstmcl ptrlll'rtl.! rrf ,v/o/111/ t rrlll/t>/1)'

replace tire tradlllmwl ll11l1111 /lit A lo,vo previously dl.splayc•cl 011 /lr/1/.1/r All llill)'.� (J/tmc•.s (photograph by Sam/1 J!rwrkl/rr).

Figure 4.1

In this cover to the promotional catalogue for the genetic engineering company Promega, the hand is the interface between the natural and the global, offering a reassuring sign of the humanity of scientific intervention.

abstract art from New York City. These decorative forms are accompanied by the personal details of the artisans and artists described on the side of the box. Inside the snack-box, sepia-style close-up photo­ graphs of a diverse range of people are located in time and space by the text explaining why it is 'Time for a Snack' (Figures 4.3 and 4 . 4) : '3.30 p.m., Washington, United States of America. An elderly farmer takes a well earned break from tending his crops, before heading home at sunset'; '10.00 a.m., Britanny, France. English schoolgirl Emily, snacks on an apple while on a camping holiday with her family' (text also given in French). The farmer stands earnestly in front of his field of grain, the schoolgirl grins through her windswept hair on her campsite; both subjects lift' situated in the outdoors, both are connected to natural-grown food products show n I n the photograph. Thus, the in-flight traveller removed from national time and spnce Ill invited to share a snack with imagined fellow-citizens, made familiar In thc�e supposedly universally recognisable types (the old farmer, the young schoolgirl), temporally and spatially located in their local worlds. 1 6 Simple foods, stralghtforwnrd people, natural surroundings: these are the players in this version of u nlvcrsul humanity - a panhumanity that transcends time and space and yet can be relocated I n the moment o f consumption within these global cultures. This third mode o r globalising products thus works through a n appeal t o a transcendent panhumanlly, expressed through local diversities which are recontextualised in this global branding exercise. The global gets inside us here through literal consumption and connects passengers to the new transcendent universalism of global culture. 1 7 {rhe final way i n which prqdus!� a�hieve. glo�a,l �tattls \ s the one to which I . . shall primarily be referring in the rest of this chapter. It builds upon the prev ious mode Insofar as It relies utterly on notions of the 'other' located In cu l tu res elsewhere, and yet dcpnrts from It In lmp��'t.� �t·-;�y�: iil. i tcn• itll' glohnl i� ·��p r.'" '

'third wofld' feminine body rituals. The consumption of western products containing Figure 4.6

In this 'map of the face' from The Body Shop Book, knowledge about skin is offered to a

universal female consumer, dissolving differences in t/ze name of 'panfemininity'.

ingredients from the ancient traditions of the 'third world' returns the western womun

'to a nature lost to her through modernity (see Figures 4.9 and 4.10). 23 �hl� st appar­ _ eritly dissolving difference and identities, these global hybridities reconstitute them ._

l'otlr

and Barbara Taylor Bradford. The success of The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls is

thing never experienced, drlvt•n perhaps by the same sense of loss, or remorse, about u

indicative of the current popularity of books which enable readers to participate in an

broken connection to pusl uncestors and to divine natures (see Baudrlllard,

imagined global culture. Numerous books of this genre offer a transcendent fantasy

1 994b).

As Taussig (1 993) has argued, 'the traditional', 'the primitive' and, Indeed, ' the

which reaches beyond national and indeed physical boundaries towards a new

prehistoric' have been necessary counterpoints to the invention of the modern. The

universal global subject informed by wisdom and knowledge.

ancient is figured in these accounts as the new time of hope and salvation In a move to

The call upon nature to provide knowledge and wisdom, transformation and healing, and guidance and direction permeates not only the accounts of healing that

escape the ills of modernity. Druidism, like Native American and Aboriginal beliefs and practices, can be rediscovered by any reader willing to make the imaginative leap across

turn away from the West for inspiration, but also those which look to 'civilisations' of

temporal and cultural zones. Contemporary western readers and consumers can 'go

the past. Alongside the 'global grail' books in Thorsons catalogues are numerous

native' and become 'a bit like the other' as a means of getting closer to nature, of

example of books about the natures of ancient cultures. These books are significant to

finding a community and of achieving self-knowledge (see Ahmed, 2000). Time ond

a discussion of global culture not only because their move back in time matches the

space are re-imagined as holding vessels for essences that endure by virtue of their

similar moves across space described above, but also because they index responses to

authenticity. New genealogies, new origins and new descent paths are mapped out here

the emptying out of contemporary western societies of meaningful, secure or resilient

as the ancestral lineages connect contemporary readers to ancient knowledges. I ndeed

models of nature.

the transcendence of temporal and spatial boundaries becomes synonymous with n

Books such as The Modern Antiquarian: a field guide to over 300 prehistoric sites

spiritual transcendence offered by such reclamation of ancient Natures. Thus, the

around Britain ( 1998) by Julian Cope (of post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes fame),

apparent contradiction in terms of a 'decontextualised nature' is held up to con fa rm llll

or The Druid Renaissance ( 1998) by Philip Carr-Gomm, for example, introduce today's

power as a magicalsign: nature is reinvented as history in a different place at a differen t

readers to the lost traditions of western civilisation that have been obliterated by

time, thoroughly out o f context, and yet the very mutability that facilitates such " cultural

modernity. The former is advertised as taking us on 'an imaginative leap back to the dawn of civilisation, when our ancestors worshipped the Earth as Mother and erected

change demonstrates its universality. In the above examples it is less a case of 'getting the global within' as It Is of

great stones in her honour, and hills and rivers were seen as aspects of divinity'

'finding the global within' through a reconnection to a lost natural order to which we

(Thorsons catalogue, December 1 998: 1 4); the latter offers a 'celebration of the

all inherently belong. According to these accounts, global culture already exists I n the

flowering of a tradition that is ancient yet ever-new', and claims that 'the Druid

intimacies of the body, of memory and of the soul. Here an 'intimate global' sup·

tradition lies at the heart of Western spirituality and today is experiencing a

posedly waits to be found in the more natural ways of other cultures. The dlscovt!ry

renaissance unprecedented in its long history. The Druids, like the Native Americans

of this lost nature, either in the elsewhere of other cultures, or in the pastness of

and Aborigines, revere and respect Earth. They see Nature as their teacher and mother'

traditional western cultures, reunites us with all living beings in a unlversol pan­

(Thorsons catalogue, January 1 998: 1 9). The appeal of ancient cultures such as the

humanity of global proportions.

Druids, it is claimed, lies in their reverence for nature: the worship of 'the Earth as Mother' and the regard for the hills and rivers 'as aspects of divinity'; or the 'reverence and respect for Earth' and nature as 'teacher and mother'. The inherent link here

be�een the natural and the spiritual

is implicitly contrasted with contemporary ways

e llt

Global Self-Health

cultures that share the claim of ancientness (Native Americans and Aborigines)

In this section of the chapter, I consider such cultural shifts in relation to self-health books more specifically. By looking at the new market in self-health manuals (the

authenticate the return to nature as part of a broader project of 'retraditionalisation'

'how to' books on health and well-being) und the practices that accompany them,

of life which have lost sight of the value of both. Connections to indigenous 'other'

(Heelas et al., 1 996). History appears here as the sign for nature. Emptied out of its foundational claims, nature in contemporary western culture struggles to signify through its

1 examine the ways In which health I� lncreusl ngly commodified In contemporury

culture, and how such com m odl l\cu t l oll produccs fnn tnsles of embodying the globul through health practices. 2"

traditional modes. But it all too often fails to reassure, to guarantee, to Inspire or to

Self-health books nrc u hybrid l(tlrlrtt uf wldt'iy nvlll lnble accounts of wuys of

transform at a time when its polluted contents and overdeveloped lundscupcs have

benefiting from bet ter (more nulurnl) Wll)'l nr MPP i n a , of fet•ll ng, of healing und of

living (see Stacey, 1 997). These self-health narrntlves crosscut a broader genre of books

Table 4.1

about the self (emotional, spiritual, physical) which are preoccupied with self­

All adult•

development, self-knowledge, self-control, self-improvement and self-healing. Along­

Profile of buyer� of healing and self-Improvement/awareness

side a host of more practical 'alternative lifestyle guides' on topics such as How to Read

Your Star Signs (Fenton, 1 998), Herbal Defence to Illness (Landis and Khalsa, 1 998),

Total

Coach Yourself to Success: how to overcome hurdles and free yourself from mind traps (Rusk and Rusk, 1 998), Manifest Your Destiny: the 9 spiritual principles for getting everything you

Gender

want (Dyer, 1 998) and The 1 0 Minute Miracle: the quick fix survival guide for mind and

1 00%

1 00%

M

48%

33%

body (Rawson and Callinan, 1 998), which are aimed at the more impatient and instrumental market, there are some examples of the 'transformative journey' genre in

F

52%

67%

the Thorsons 'New Books List' for 1 998 which remain within a western schema. Leslie

Age

Kenton's Journey Into Freedom by the ex-editor for Harper's and Queen (described as a

1 5-24

1 5%

9%

'one-woman Wall Street of well being'), for instance, is advertised as bringing 'to light

25-34

22%

23%

natural methods of enhancing health and good looks that enable people to gain more

35-44

1 6%

24%

control over their lives, and achieve a high degree of autonomy and better use of their

45-54

1 5%

21 o/o

personal creativity' (Thorsons catalogue, 1 998: 1 6). Such role-model authors offer

55-64

1 3%

1 4%

readers a new way of living and a new way of seeing, and yet do so within the

65+

20%

7%

recognisable metaphors of western individualism (control, autonomy and personal output).

Social grade

Self-health books of all kinds can now be found in high-street bookstores, in

AB

1 8%

34%

health food shops and alternative health centres, and in their more popular forms in

C1

25%

31 o/o

airports, stations, and so on. One marker of the significance of the expansion of this

C2

27%

1 8%

new market within publishing is the introduction of a new category of 'healing, self­

DE

30%

1 6%

63%

42%

improvement/awareness' books into the Book Marketing Limited 1 995-6 survey of book sales in the United Kingdom.29 This category was introduced into the 1 995-6

Terminal education age

survey to begin to track the success of this emergent market. The overall percentage of

16

incidence of purchase appears at first glance to be relatively insubstantial, and yet as

or under

1 7-1 8

1 6%

24%

part of a broader changing cultural trend, such percentages are significant. As the

1 9+

1 5%

30%

statistics demonstrate, purchase varies according to geographical location, educational

Still studying

7%

4%

training and according to class and gender, being rather predictably more common amongst women and amongst higher income bracket middle-class consumers (see

Presence of children

Tables 4.1 and 4.2).

Any under

More recent figures suggest that there has been an increase in book sales in

11

35%

3 7%

27%

27%

1 5%

21 o/o

64%

61 o/o

21%

this area even since the initial survey: sales of books under the category of 'Mind,

Any

Body, Spirit' (of which self-health forms a part) have increased from 2.5 million in

None under

type of material is the rise in the total UK sales of the books discussed in this chapter:

Region

between December 1 996 and December 1 997 total sales were 1 7,894, and between

North

35%

Midlands

27%

30%

these books is especially significant when read alongside the general proliferation of

South

38%

50%

1 997 to 2.6 million in 1998.30 Another indicator of the increasing popularity of this

December 1 998 and July 1 999 total sales were 39,618. 31 The growth in the market for activities and practices of self-health. This expanding market in publishing is indicative of a much more general intensification of interest in self-transformation and self-healing among readerships in western countries such as Brllnln.;•z

I 'I ..C:.

Any under

15

1 1 -1 4 15

Source: Books and the Consum11r 7 995-96, t•ook

Mnrkr.llng limited

Table 4.2

As these ftgmoa dllrnnnatrntc, In many ways self-health books do not form n

Incidence of purchase of healing and self-Improvement/awareness

Total

4%

M

3%

F

5%

mentioned above; to t h e t'K l c n t t h u t they combine mind/body/spirit philosophies und advocate a change In 'll ft•stylc', they overlap with New Age publications (sec I-lcclus, books on alternative and complementary medicine (see Sharma, 1 992). The expansl()n of many alternative health practices (such as acupuncture, or shiatsu massage) lilt() western countries obviously informs the marketability of these ideas, since these contribute to the familiarity and credibility of non-western medical models. According

Age

1 5-24

2%

25-34

4%

35-44

6%

45-54

6%

55-64

4%

M+

1%

Social grade

7%

C1

5%

C2

3%

DE

2%

3%

1 7-1 8

6%

1�

8%

Still studying

2%

Presence of children

15

4%

Any under

11

4%

None under

5% 15

intersecting areas, my discussion of these global self-health books should ll()t be assumed to apply to all these other domains, whose specificity would need a con­ textualised and thorough analysis of their own. Here I examine the version of the global offered to readers in the form of self­ cultures, and to put together the particular combination that suits their Individual project of self-transformation (see Giddens, 1 991). In many self-health books, readers are offered hope for a healthier future through a borrowing of beliefs and practice� about disease and healing from non-western cultures. These cultures appeal because of their more natural approaches and their appropriate reverence for nature. Having authenticate the subject and to invigorate the body, or, indeed, to return It to Its original, more natural, state. Although these accounts construct non-western cultures in many different ways, the use of their more natural 'healing traditions' as a unlvcrsnl sign unites nutritional, psychotherapeutic and spiritual approaches. But how are the fantasies of bodily interiority that inform our understanding of disease connected to the effects of globalising cultures? What fantasies of 'other' bodies underpin emergent

Any under

1 1 -14

Britain had tried at least one form of alternative therapy (Coward, 1 989: 3). However, whilst some arguments presented here are pertinent in different ways to each of these

lost faith in nature in the West, these non-western cultures are mobilised to rc·

Terminal education age or under

to one study, as early as the mid-1980s ( 1984-7), 34 per cent of the population In

health books in which they are invited to mix and match beliefs from non-western

AB

Any

development, they OVt'rlnp with populur psychology 'self-help' books, such us those I

1996); and to the extent that they advocate self-healing, they also overlap with many

Sex

16

discrete generic cntrgory, To l hr t'KIL•nt that these books arc concerned wll.h self·

4%

beliefs about health and healing in global culture? What kinds of desires Inform the transcendent fantasies of these new healthy subjects of the global future? In Living, Loving and Healing: a guide to a fuller life, more love and greater

health, Bernie Siegel's advice to patients includes numerous references to the greater wisdom of non-western cultures, such as Buddhism and Native American culture. Interspersed with quotations from patients, poems and biblical parables are numerous

Region

gestures towards the wisdom of the East: for example, Siegel quotes from The Joseplr

North

2%

Midlands

4%

South

see a great chasm. Jump. It Is not 11s wide us you think' (Campbell, cited In Siegel,

5%

1 993: 16). Similarly, In An llml l'o Ccmcttr: tho m1trlllmral approach to its prevetltlon

Source: Books and the Consumer 7 995-96, Book Marketing Limited

Campbell Companion: reflections Otl t'lre art of living: 'As you go the way of life, you will

and

control, Leon Chaltow's argument Is typh:ul uf mnny other such books when he cites the lack of cuncer among peoples uf WC!Il Afrkn, j11pnn, Northern l ndlu, South Amcrlcu und Nutlve Amerlcun cultures; cuncur, ht! Nlll(l(t'�ls, I s almost unknown

• ., n

amongst 'people l iving on natural (unprocessed) food' ( 1 983: 46). Simonton et al. In their famous cancer sel f-hel p book Gettl11g Wt'/1 Asaln also reference Indian Yogis who

Similarly, I n

are able to stick large needles into their bodies and not bleed, or walk over hot coals

Ayurveda with contempornry rt'�t'n rc h In quantum physlts to 'demonstrate t he l n nute

and not experience pain (1978: 29). The contrast between western and eastern approaches to health and healing is central to another example of the self-health book: Spontaneous Healing by Andrew Weil (1997). Introducing himself as a 'dedicated follower of Hygeia', he states:

Agele11 Body, 'T'Im'l'll Mimi ( 1 993),

Deepak Chopru, 'a world-class pioneer

In m i nd/body mudklnu', utrl'rN 11 rom hl nutlon of ancient 1-l l ndu teu chl n gs on

I ntelligence of the m lnd/hody processes and the extent to which sickness and uglng are created by nothing more th u n gaps I n our self-knowledge' (back cover). In both these examples, as In muny others, proximity to the East authenticates the naturulness of select forms of western knowledge, marking them out as different from western approaches to health more generally.

In the West, a major focus of scientific medicine has been the identification of external agents of disease and the development of weapons against them. . . . In the East, especially in China, medicine has had quite a different focus. It has explored the ways of increasing internal resistance to disease so that, no matter what harmful influences you are exposed to, you can remain healthy - a Hygeian strategy.

(1997: 4) Hygeia (presumably from the Greek hygieinos, meaning healthful) promises a self­ sufficient body if it is properly nurtured: 'The Eastern concept of strengthening internal defenses is Hygeian because it assumes that the body has a natural ability to resist and deal with agents of disease' ( 1 997: 6). Weil continues to introduce the reader (by direct address) to his theory of 'spontaneous healing' (a man with terminal cancer and a diabetic woman with a severe heart attack are sent home to die and suddenly make an unexpected recovery - why?) in a chapter entitled ' Prologue in the Rain Forest', which begins:

• ®

Easternised Nature

The West's bid to reinvent nature for itself within global culture is achieved through the recontextualisation of practices, beliefs and commodities from non-western cui· tures. In many self-health books the alienation and loss of faith in the West nrc contrasted repeatedly with the solidity and longevity of cultural values in the East; the inhumanity and brutality of western approaches to health are endlessly compurcd unfavourably with the more holistic and natural healing systems of the East. The cultures typically presented as rich sources of more natural ways of healing assoclutcd with the 'East', are most notably India, Tibet, Japan and China, or those of the SO· called 'indigenous' Native Americans and Aborigines. The place of the East within the western imagination has long been tht! subject of academic and political debate. From Edward Said onwards, the place of 'orientalism' in the West's contempt, and yet desire, for the East has been thoroughly

Let me take you with me to a faraway place I visited more than twenty years ago: the sandy bank of a wide river on a sultry afternoon in 1972. The river was a tributary of the Rio Caqueta in the northwest Amazon. . . .

(1997: 1 1)

critiqued. 33 Said writes of the Orient as 'almost a European invention [that] had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences' ( 1978: 1 ). 34 The idealised eastern nature discussed so far In this chapter might be seen to extend the appropriative strategies of colonialism Into postcolonialism. In his book Green Imperialism, historian Richard Grove, for example,

The hybrid 'best from East and West' approach is increasingly pervasive

argues that such fantasies belong to a much longer tradition within the colonlnl

among these books, especially those relating to health and healing. According to · the

project. Indeed, some of these tendencies can be traced back several centuries, and nrc

back cover of the book Anatomy of the Spirit: the seven stages of power and healing

part of the history of green imperialism in which the fantasies of the East as closer to

(1997), for example, the author, Caroline Myss, is described as presenting

nature became part of the early colonial project. He writes:

[a] long-awaited model of the body's seven centres of spiritual and physical power in which she synthesizes the ancient wisdom of three spiritual traditions - the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life. With this model, Dr Myss shows how you can develop your latent power and spiritual maturity. As you begin to understand the anatomy of your spirit, you will discover the spirtual causes of illness, how to sense and correct energy Imbalance before it expresses itself as physical Illness, and how to recover emotl<mully and physically from any illness you may have .

After the fifteenth century the emerging global framework of trade and truvcl provided the conditions for a process by which indigenous European notions about nature were grndu u l l y trnnsformed or even submerged by a plethora of information, Impressions nnd lmplrnt lon from the wider world. In this wuy the commercial and utll ltnrlnn purposes of Jl.uro 1wnn expansion produced a situation In which the troplcnl en vl rm un t� ll l WIIN l rll'rrnslngly utilised as the symbolic location for the Idealised llltUIMC'IIpON 111\d IIMplrnl lnn� o f t he western Imagination. ( 1 995: 3)

For Grove, the prolectlon of 11 western aonrch for un Innocent ami lidtmlc nnturc Is intimately bound up with t he history of l m pt l ln li sm : 'ITihe whole tropical world ' '

became vulnerable to colonisation by an cvcN'xpund i ng and ambitious i maginative symbolism.' He continues:

such

a

process Is 11 tundamontltl N h l ft nwny from u 'trunsccndcnt' townrds un ' l m rnll·

nent' conception of l hu dlvhw, 11 11d from a dualistic to a mon istic p h il os ophy. :' .� I n

other words, whllsl (ll't•vlou�ly t i ll' divine was typically conceptual ised u s beyond the limits of possible cxpcrlcm·c or knowledge (beyond the material), God Is now more commonly believed to pervude nuture or the 'souls of man' (existing as an lnn�r force);

Ultimately the search for an eastern-derived Eden provided much of the imaginative basis for early Romanticism, whose visual symbols were frequently located in the tropics, and for the late eighteenth-century Orientalism, for which the Edenic search was an essential precursor. (1995: 4) As Grove suggests, knowledge of the natural was the respectable path to seeking knowledge of God in Calvinist seventeenth-century Europe ( 1 995: 4). By the 1 850s, he argues, early colonial conservationism amounted to a 'highly heterogeneous mixture of indigenous, Romantic, Orientalist and other elements' ( 1 995: 12). In contemporary global culture, the east continues to function as the source of potent fantasies of an Edenic nature. In the new markets of self-health, the mind­ body-spirit axis depends upon a healing nature that is often borrowed from the East.

and whilst

a

split between two guiding forces or principles ('man' and God, mind und

body, good and evil, for example) previously governed western philosophy, the move now is towards a model of unity, of interconnectedness and Interdependence (a com­ plex entity, such as the universe, is basically simple and undifferentiated) (Longman'.�

English Dictionary, 1 984). Campbell sums up this change thus: [T]hat dominant paradigm . . . which has served the West so effectively for 2,000 years has finally lost its grip over the majority of the population In Western Europe and North America. They no longer hold to a view of the world as divided into matter and spirit, and governed by an all-powerful, personal creator God; one who has set his creatures above the rest of creation. This vision has been CCISt' asldt'

and with it all justification for mankind 's domination over nature. (1999: 47, emphasis m ine)

Recontextualised and frequently hybridised within western practices of self-health, this eastern nature has come to promise a spirituality which many find lacking in the

As Campbell states, it is not that these are entirely new beliefs, but rather that we nrc

West. Easternised nature is fundamental to the reconceptualisation of the body and its

seeing the widespread acceptance of ideas previously confined to the minority (1 999:

relationship to its environment in the project of self-health. In this section of the

37). Easternisation is not simply about the wholesale introjection of eastern beliefs nnd

chapter I suggest that increasing reliance upon an eastern nature, evident within self­

practices (such as religions) into the West, but, rather, involves the intensification of

health cultures, is part of a much broader transformation of western beliefs about the

'easternised' paradigms and conceptualisations within western cultures I n more diffuse,

meaning of life, death and God, and that this is a crucial, and yet little-discussed,

and, at the same time, more profound, ways. Campbell cites as evidence of this shift the

dimension of globalisation.

growth in non-Judaeo-Christian religious beliefs (such as the impersonal nature of the

What figures so pervasively and so powerfully within global self-health

divine and reincarnation) and the displacement of the search for truth through religion

cultures is a cluster of new beliefs that both draw upon and reinvent the religious

by a quest for enlightenment. I n addition, Campbell argues, whilst traditional western

philosophies of the East. Far from being the much-proclaimed godless materialisms of

religions continue to decline, eastern ones (Hinduism and Buddhism, for example)

advanced western capitalism, global cultures might rather be seen as dependent_ upon

continue to thrive, as do 'westernised' forms of eastern religions (yoga and meditation,

new forms of spirituality. As Appadurai suggests: '[T]here is vast evidence in new

for example). We might add to these the examples cited from the self-health literatures

religiosities of every sort that religion is not only not dead but that it may be more

above, which all conform to Campbell's easternised model of an Immanent u nd

consequential than ever in today's highly mobile interconnected global politics'

monistic spirituality conceptualised as a healing force within us all.

( 1996: 7). These 'new religiosities' are drawn substantially from eastern religious

But for Campbell, easternisation is not simply a question of 'the Introduction

philosophies and have profoundly shaped the contours of contemporary global health

and spread within the West, of recognisable 'Eastern "imports", whether these ure

cultures. But what exactly is meant by 'easternised nature', and how does it play a part

products, such as spices, yoghurt, and silks, and practices such as yoga and acupunc­

in how the global gets inside us in contemporary health cultures?

ture, or complete religious systems such as Hinduism and Buddhism'. Rather It

According to sociologist Colin Campbell, there has been a major shift in the

suggests a more profound sh i ft: ' I T] he traditional Western cultural paradigm no longer

ultimate religious belief paradigm in western cultures over the last thirty years which he

dominates in so-called "Western" soc ie t ies , hut has been replaced by an "Eastern "

calls a process of 'easternisation'. Whilst not losing sight of the processes of 'western­

one' ( 1 999: 40 - 1 ) . In pluce of lht! Wt'M il'l'n pnrnd l g m , he claims,

isation' through which the West has continued to dominate the so-called 'third world', and, more recently, the second (ex-communist) world, Campbell argues that: easternisa­ tion is profoundly transforming western cultures. What might he suld t o characterise

, ,,

has been set the fundlll llt'll l ll lly P.IIMittrn VINhlll of rnnnkind as merely part of the great Interconnected wch of NOOI I\1111 lUI', l'ur j l l � l II� ' l ' h r < l rl'ut Chuin of B e i n g WUN

the pnrndlgm mctuphor for the e l gh te!t'll l h ccntury, so tod uy there Is cmt'l'gln�o� u shn l l

__.-

In shape ('different races and s i zes ' ) , com plt'tcly t•tl!'ll�t'd 111 mul ti-coloured tights.

This is, in Marilyn Strathern's phrase, nature 'enterprised up' (1992b): the naturnl,

legitimated in Benetton's discourse.

·"�-��Cc)�',

example, the viewer Is confronted hy 11 NcrlcM or ����- 1 1 1 prol\ lc, cnd1 slightly different

act of choice: what colour Is your skin going t o hl' toduy'l (The same choice was

Photography feeds back information about what it means to be a human being -

Certainly Benetton's advertising is distinctive - at least in the

shudc ngulml another. In the crcnllon or thll oltt"'t, tho dl•llm•llnn between cloth 1111d skin Is eschewed (Figure 5.4). I n u promnl lonnl l l l u-t nll lou ror lights (Figure 5.5), fo r

bring out colour contrasts as in Benetton outlets, in which stacks of jumpers are folded and piled up so as to seem as if they are paint colour charts (Figure 5.3). The overall effect of colour - not any particular colour but colour as such, colour iiS the medium

of difference - is enhanced through the graduations In tone, the suggested com­ patibility of hues and contrasts In tints created by the endlc8N l'cpos l t lonlng of one

Innate property and the artificial, cultural enhancement become one. PeruslnM

figure. Biology is no longer a refe�ent for r(l�e; rather, race is created In the col our5

constlt�ted in the arbitrary relations between signifier and signified. · In fashion, what Walter Benjamin (1970) termed the phantasmagorlu of commodities has always pressed close to the skin; clothing is quite literally ut the borderline betweeii subject and object, the cultural and the natural: Traversing . this bo.r'derline is Benetton's problematic; indeed, it is the concern of a number of othcr fashion companies as well. For example, Maschino produced t-shirts with the slogun 'La nature c'est mieux que Ia couture'; while a brochure claims,

In regards to prints we have chosen only nature themes taken photographlcnlly

from scientific texts in an effort not to alter even In the slightest way thc Uod· given details. It Is a sign of respect for God that we enthusiastically have begun to show, and I ndeed, to stress, not only the l'onccptunl nnd symbolic value of nnturc,

hut also to emphasize the lncrcdlhlt' vnrll'ly of s hnpes, designs, and arahesques . . .

Images that nnture hus ulwnys possl'�NCII.

(Mosrhlno prornollonnl lcnfll•t)

w rn

What distinguishes llcnctton's Iconog ra phy, huwevcr, Is thnt It Is explicitly concerned with a second nal me, a natme that Is a matter ol' choke.

llcncl'ton 's nclvertlslng II Mllf•t'OnNclowily ' located In this photo-an throt,ologleal/ n n t h ol og lcul ll'lldlt lnn, 1111 htf11111ouN t•x run p le of w h i ch IN 'The Jlumlly of Mun', u n Stt-ldwn l'or th e Museum ol' Modern Arl in New YOJ'k In 1 955 (see Lury, 1 99K, for 11 (MII l l t•d discussion of this exhibition and Its relutlon to l lcn etton lconogruphy). l 'o r t•xnmpll•, one of Benetton's most widely discussed advcr· 7 t ls l n g Images - that of 11 1111111 d yi n g of AIDS - initially appeared In Life, w h i l e Benetton describes Its promot ional magazine Colors as 'a hipper National Geograplllc; n n ironic Life; an amusing, Irreverent, light-hearted,' scholarly, over-the-top collection of off-beat and on-target stories about the people of the world' (Benetton press relensc, 1 992, quoted in Back and Quaade, 1 993: 78).8 What is distinctive about the photography employed in the Benetton campaign, though, is that it proposes 11 panhumanity, a mix'n'match humanity which is- animated by choice, the colourful play of difference. ' [C]olour and joie de vivre. . . . You like it because it reminds you of child· hood, of well-defined, coloured pictures. Let us say that it is that type of style, more like printed paper, not necessarily real but neither totally unreal' (Mattei, n.d.: 4). I n this not totally unreal reality, the aesthetic equivalence of cloth and skin a s colourN displaces not only the natural foundation of race, but also that of sex (Figure 5 . 1 3). This sidestepping is aided by the youthfulness of the models, one of the few constnnts In Benetton's universe of diversity, and a more general function of fashion itself. Of this function, Roland Barthes writes, l'X h l b l tlon crentcd h y Jl.dWIIrll

The Natura lness of Choice

The representation of race as a choice (and of choice as a compulsory act) is central to Benetton's entire brand image and marketing strategy. This position is clearly elabor­ ated in the fourth edition of Colors, a promotional magazine published by Benetton, the editor-in-chief of which was Toscani (although it is largely put together by the editor; in this case, Tibor Kalman). Here, the natural basis of race is both literally an figuratively deconstructed: photographic images of discrete parts of the bodies of people of different races - ears, noses, eyes, hair and blood - are juxtaposed, and the biological differences between different races are described and found to be either non-existent or unimportant (Figures 5 . 7 and 5.8). But this does not mean that race is done away with; rather, nature is enterprised up and skin colour, hair type and eye shape are represented as nothing more nor less than artifice, or the art of choic�. ture ('a few simple procedures ') is represented as a natural extension of this artifice. There is, for example, a feature on,

h

How to change your race. You mean you're not a round-eyed, blond haired, w ite skinned, perky nosed god or goddess? No problem. All you have to do is to undergo a few simple procedures.

(Colors no. 4, spring/summer 1993)

Information, costings and advice on cosmetic surgery, make-up and hairstyling are provided, and there are photographic illustrations showing how a model, who is 'half black and half native American' can be made up/out to look realistically 'black', 'white' or 'oriental' (Figure 5.9). There are computer-generated images of a 'black' Queen Elizabeth II (Figure 5.10), a 'black' Arnold Schwarzenegger, a 'white' Spike Lee (Figure 5 . 1 1), an 'oriental' Pope john Paul I I and a 'white' Michael jackson (Figure 5. 12). This enterprising up is in part a consequence of the use of the cultural apparatus of photography. In her discussion On Photography, Susan Sontag notes that, according to one critic, the greatness of [the photographer] Paul Strand's pictures from the last period of his life . . . consists in the fact that 'his people, whether Bowery derelict, Mexican peon, New England farmer, Italian peasant, French artisan, Breton or Hebrides fisherman, Egyptian fellahoin, the village idiot or the great Picasso, are all touched by the same heroic quality - humanity.' What is this humanity? It is a quality things have in common when th ey arc viewed as photographs.

( I IJ77: 1 1 0- 1 1 )

Structurally, the junior is presented as the complex degree of the femilllllt'/ masculine: it tends towards androgyny; but what is more remarkable I n this new term is that it effaces sex to the advantage of age; this is, it seems, a pru fou n d process of fashion: it is age which is important not sex.

(1985: 258) At the same time that sex is displaced, however, just as with race, this catcgorlnl difference is also reworked and made newly productive. In the images which feature couples of both sexes many show individuals of visibly contrasting races. The frlssotl o f a 'mixed-race', heterosexual coupling reintroduces sex as a voluntaristic category ol' social being. Fashion critics Evans and Thornton suggest that this tendency - suh· merging sexual _ difference to enable it to resurface as stylistic effect - was more generally visible in fashion imagery in the mid-1980s. They write, Much of the excitement of fashion imagery of this period, especially, . . . In t hose magazines aimed at both sexes, was achieved by the deployment of sexunl d i fference as a p ure si gn i fie r, d eta c he d fro m bi ologi cal difference. In such lm ngcs th e play of clothing signl ficrs 1m•sentcd gender as j us t one term among many. However the (rlsso11 of CXl'llt'mcnt t hnt ncmrnpanlcd these m an i pu l ati o ns only existed because sexuul dl ffcrc.mcc n

'naturalized' polnrlty

-

111111 1

construed as old-fash ioned,

II

or

wn l l cd I n tlw wi ngs,

nlways rcndy

to rc-eml•rgc n�

womtm, pt•t•t•lscly hccnuse sexual dl ffcrcnc.:c wn�

could ht1 rt•cyclcd In pos tmod c rn fush lon.

(1 989: 64)

In later Benetton campaigns, the � t yl lstlc equivalence of skin nnd cloth as achieved in the photographic imagery of the fashion shots was extended to I n vert a whole series of natural relations and hierarchies. It lies behind the challenge to the biological basis of mothering in both the image of a black woman breast-feeding a white child, and in that of two women, one white, one black, holding an oriental child. It dissolves and reconstructs the natural distinction between animals and humans in the use of starkly black and starkly white animals - a white wolf 'kissing' a black sheep, a black horse mounting a white horse - as models, counterparts to the young people of different races in other images, and in the use of images of different breeds of chicken to illustrate the different styles of contemporary fashion designers. In the latter case, cloth and skin - or rather feathers - are represented as stylistically equivalent. Jean Paul Gaultier's designer style, for example, is represented by a Naked Neck chicken from Hungary: 'Modern yet nostalgic. Deliberate yet improvisational. Gaultier plays with contrasts in a peekaboo sable dress and thigh-high furry boots. The result is serious fun' (Colors no. 2, spring/summer 1992) (Figure 5. 14). The erasure of context in these pictures through the use of neutral colour backgrounds to the pages' ends is characteristic of Benetton iconography. This technique makes it difficult not only to contextualise the subjects of the photograph but also to identify their size, and the resulting effacement of scale and perspective reinforces the tendency for culture to displace nature, and for diff�r:�m::gJ:oJ:.�e g�fined � of choice. Toscani comments, ........ .. -

.

- --�

_...,. �"''"'---

I studied at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. They taught us the new photo­ graphic objectivity in the best Bauhaus tradition. . . . The white backgrounds of my photographs, the way the subjects all face the camera, the direct message, the strict objectivity - all that comes from Zurich.

(1995: 20)

Through the consistent 'objectivity' of such stylistic devices, the context is represented as environment: the background is reduced to its capacity to act as a function of the subject, no more than a foil to give the subject its definition. In all these examples, then, the flattening of perspective and the playful juxtaposition of colour inverts and displaces the relations between figure and context, subject and object, culture and nature.

Diversity and Global Citizenship

And what of other forms of difference, the relations between the cultural and the social, the cultural and the political? National identity is subject to the same rep­ resentational reconstruction as the categories of race, gender and specks I n Bcnetton advertisi ng: It Is accentuated, deconstructed and refigured. For t• xn m p l t', In some of the

curly fnshlon brochurtl, eRrlrllturt!M of nntlonnl costume nrc presented, nnllonnl nnRS nrc waved, and Cllrtt(IIIINII• n l huh· to past· and pr', In .lonnthan Rutherford (ed.), ftltmtlty, Lo nd o n : Lnwren�e nml Wishart, pp. 207-2 1 .

B i bl i og ra phy

Bhabha, Hom! (ed.) ( 1 \l'l:i)

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pp. 1 7 7-9 1 . Kclle•·, livclyn Jlox ( 1 992) St'CTI'I.I of' Ufi', Srr:rt'l.l of'/Jrttt/1: r.mt)'·l till

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Nt!W Ymk:

Keller, livelyn Fox ( 1 99M Refl,'(u rlrrx Life: metaphor.! o( twerr tlctlt-ccu tu ry bloiiJip, University Press.

NIIW

Ynrk: r.nhnnbln

Mnnlh.', Jonnthnn

(19!111) ll•lllfhllll til' flmtiiJ•, 1/t� /m.drrr.!.l mul tit� lmtllll, l .nn dnn: J.lttll!, llrowtt. 1 1111 lipt!l'lll: how Ndt•m·r: lurs 1:onstructr:d n r·nmnnl'C! hnll!ll

Mnr· lln, l(mtly (' 1 !19 1 ) ''l'hl! 111111 nnrl

on

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stereotyplcnl mnlv/fcm111h• tnh••', .�l.,m I f• (:1 ) : 4115-50 I . Marlin, llmlly ( 1 992) ' l lud y NnrriiiiW-1 llorly llmrtlllnrles', In Luwrence Grossh!!rg, Cnry Nl�lson nnd l'nuln

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Martin, Emily ( 1 994) lllv.�ll•lr• llmllv.11 lwl'klll,� 11111111111/ty In Amer/cmr culture (rom llr1• clays of'Jmllo to lltl'

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Mellencamp, Patricia (ed.) (1 990a) Logics of Television: essays in cultural criticism, Bloomington: lmllnnn

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Ortner, Sherry and Whltelwnd, l-lnrrh.•t (1�d�) ( 1 98 1 ) Sc•xrral Mrmtlttx.�: tltr l'llllllml romtmctlcm of'.�mclrr 111111 .1exrmllty, CnmhrldKl': CnmhrlliKl' \Jrr lvl'nlty l'n;o��.

Outlshoorn, Ndly ( 1 994) lll'}�md 11111 Ntllllml lllllly: t/111 ttrl'ltr,olo.�}' of'. lr.v /IIII'IIIIIIW,l, London: ltoutlt'liKl'·

Oynmn, Susnn ( 1 98!1) Till' Orrto.�t'IIY tlf' lrrf'or·ma tlmt: rlt'VI'/tlflllll!lltrtl ·'Y·''" "·' tll ltl PVtl/lltlcm, Cnrnhrldl(c: Cnmhrldl(l! Un lvt'r's lly l'rt•ss. Pnrsons, Tnlcol l, Fox, lltm(•t• C. and l .ldz, Vktor M. ( 1 972) 'The "unuldlsutlon, IJR Klohnll�lnK l'lllture� nnd hlt'nl l t y, I 40-2 ' Olohn1Nnturi!Culture 1M , IJ0·2 ' K iot• n iiN nt lon ' , :1

Gould, S.J., 2 1 2, 226 n2 1 governmentallty, 44, 1 88 Grove, R., 1 2 1 -2 Haines, T., 223 Hall, S., 3-4 Haraway, D., 9, 33, 50, 68, 73-4, 76-8, 79, 8 8, 91, 92 n1, 128, 132, 1 33, 183 -4, 216- 1 7, 221 Hartouni, V., 1 95 Hay, L., 1 38-9 healing, 1 1 9-21 health individual, 76 and pathology, 1 89 · public, 90, 189 see also self-health 'heirloom variety' seeds, 81 -4, 85 history feminist perspectives, 45-6, 1 95 - 7 of life itself, 189-95 and nature, 21, 44-5, 5 1 -4 worship of 'the ancient', 1 13 - 1 5 Holbeche, S . , 125 holistic medicine, 129-30 Holquist, M., 37, 40- 1 Home Planet, The (Kelley), 28, 30 homogenisation, 4 hooks, b., 104 Hoyle, F., 3 1 human genome project, 79, 1 4 4 n24, 1 94, 196, 217 hybridity, 109 iconography, 26, 52-3 global risk, 1 33-4, 135 local diversity, 99- 101

see also blue planet as icon; cell, as icon; foetus, as icon; fossils; pixels identity, 75-8, 140-2 commodity identification as citizenship, 160 by design, 76 imagination, 1 91, 222, 223, 224 immune system, 40, 129- 32, 136 information technology, 1 70-1 informational bodies, 128-32, 137-8 Ingold, T., 36, 37-8, 42 n8 intellectual property legislation, 70, 87, 92 n5, 1 75-9, 222 isomorphism of nature and culture, 9, 10- 1 1 , 1 7 7-9, 1 95 Jameson, F., 1 7 1 -2 Jordanova, L., 45

!urcM.dc Park film, 1 9, 1 9 1 , 1 9 7, l '.IH ··20 1

consumption of, 22:\, 22h n22 excessiveness of, 2 1 5, 2 1 6, 220, 222 global brand of, 1.97, 209 making of, 207-9, 223-4, 225 n 1 2 marketing of, 202, 207-9, 215- 16, 2 1 9-20, 225 n 1 1 , 226 n23 sexual politics of, 220, 221, 222, 227 n29 museum exhibition, 2 10- 1 4 novel, 1 9 7, 200, 201, 202 theme park, ride and toy, 201 - 7, 225 n 1 7 Kaplan, C., 105 Keller, E. Fox, 38, 46, 75 Kelley, K.W., 28, 30 Kelly, K., 70-2 kinship, 73, 74, 75, 87, 1 90, 192, 2 1 8, 221, 223 commodity (brand families), 68, 69- 70, 72-3, 74 constitution of, 22 1 gardening, 80, 8 1 -4, 85 and gender, 73-4, 91, 22 1 Kleinman, A. and Kleinman, J., 162 Kotlarz, I., 207 Kracauer, S., 1 6 7 Langer, M . , 202 life itself branding (patenting) of, 73, 86 as cultural technology, 2 1 5, 222 genetic imaginary and, 1 91, 1 98, 222, 224 history of, 1 89-95 as information, 74, 189, 192, 2 1 9 instrumentalisation of, 1 89, 1 90, 1 9 1 marketing of, 86, 1 90, 2 1 5 -20 re-sexualisation of, 220-2 sacralisation of, 1 95-6 sacredness of, 124, 125, 195-7 as spectacle, 196, 216 storiedness of, 1 97-8 technologisation of, 188 textualisation of, 220 as a wealth accumulation strategy, 86, 189, 1 90, 2 1 5, 222

Living, Loving and Healing: a guide to a fuller life, more love and greater lzealth (Siegel), 119 local diversity, 3-4, 1 4 1 icons of, 99- 101 logos, 68, 69, 1 6 7 Jurassic Park, 209 Virgin, 70 see also trademarks

I.Ul�ll81 Cl,, 20:\-4

l .yolnnl, .f.ll., I :u;, t :i7-R

markellng, 1 68

Martin, E., 4 1 , 43 nB, l :i l Massey, D., 1 42 n3 mind/body, 1 2 1 , 1 26

Mind, Body and Immrmlty (Chnrlcs), t:i 1 - 2, 1 36 - 7 Mitchell, W.I., 60 molecular biology, 79, 1 89-90, 1 92, 222 molecular globallsatlon, 1 90 Monsanto, 73, 78, 93 n7 Morris, B., 1 76 - 7 Morton, C . and Thomas, C.L., 1 1 3 - 1 4 Mi.iller, H., 1 90 Multi-cultural Planet, The (UNESCO), 1 59-60, 1 74, 1 83 multicultural planet and difference, 1 54-8 Myers, G., 98, 142 n4 and 6, 143 n10 Myerson, ]., 7 6 Myss, C., 1 20, 126

Mystery of the Crystal Skulls, The (Morton and Thomas), 1 1 3 - 1 4 national and bodily boundaries, 1 34 national identity and global citizenship, 75-8 natural selection, 87-8, 2 1 7, 2 1 8, 225 n9 nature 'bare', 52 commodifying, 109- 1 3 a s context, 20 denaturalisation and renaturalisation, 10, 19, 22, 23, 68, 72, 73-4, 85, 99, 2 1 5, 2 1 6, 2 1 7 displaced by technology, 22, 1 91, 2 1 5, 2 1 7 easternisation of, 1 2 1 - 5 geneticisation of, 189-90 globalised, 21, 84, 189 and history, 21, 44-5, 5 1 -4, 59-60 isomorphism of, and culture, 9, 10- 1 1 , 78, 79, 86, 1 7 7-9, 195 as life, 44-5 reinventions of, 5 'remade as technique', 1 89, 194, 2 1 6, 223, 224 second, 21-6, 84, 205 and spirituality, 1 1 3 - 1 5, 1 22-5, 1 38-9 third world, 104-7 traffic between, und culture, 8 - 1 1 , SO, 68, 86, 90, 1 90-9 1 vlsunllsullons of, 54-5 Nnture Cornpnny, The, 42 n:i, 1 1 2, 1 44 n25 New i\l(c, 1 25

Nilsson, L., :n, 34, J.'i

'non-tc!IIIJlornl fi!C'l llllMio', M-ti, tiO, tit , 62, tl:4, I 'J2, 22.� nH I IO I I .. WI'NII'I'II l'll l t lll'llf l n flllt'lll't'N 1t'lh nll" I I I UII(t•I'Y• 1)9

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sp l l· l l tl llllly, 1 1 3- 1 5, 1 38-9, 1 4 1 '�'M OncoMouse , 87, 88, 92 n1, 2 1 8- 1 9, 22 1 , 222 Oyama, S., 56- 7, 6 1 , 74, 75 palaeontology see fossils; exhibition

frrrassic Park,

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panfemlnlnlty, 105 panhumanlty, 26, 28-3 1, 32, 75, 8 1 , 10 1 , 1 40, 1 97-8 patents, 73, 78, 86, 87, 88, 90, 1 89, 222 performatlvlty, 7-8 phatlc Images, 69, 181, 182 photography, 1 6 7-8 Benetton, 147- 55, 157, 165-6, 1 7:i -4, 180- 1 blue planet, 27-8, 3 1 , 32 digital re-authorlng, 60-6 foetus, 33-5 pixels, 54, 60-6, 68, 74, 75, 78 Pollan, M., 73, 74, 75, 78 postmodern theory, 9, 51, 1 95 knowledge and lnformntlon, 1 36, 137-8 Promega, 99, 100 Rablnow, P., 1 34, 192, 1 94-5 race as choice, 150-2, 1 55 'exotic otherness', 104 as given, 75, 2 1 9, 220 Imagery, 148-50 racism, 1 58, 1 80 reflexivity, 1 5 7-8, 160, 1 6 1 renaturallsatlon and denaturallsatlon, 1 O, 1 9, 22, 23, 73-4, 99 reproduction, 49-50, 9 1 - 2 responsibility, 140 risk management, 132-6 ri sk society, 1 33

Rltchln, F., 62 Roddick, i\., 1 OS, 1 0 7 Rosenbl um, 11., · 1 48 lh1dwlck, M ., 54-5, 56, 57-8

�IICrt'!hll'�S of l i ft', 1 24, 1 25, 1 95 - 7 Ncrcrm .lrt' t' in r m n; pixels Nl'l'OIIII llltlurr, 2 1 -·ti, '/ti, H.�, 20!i Nlllld , (He H.�. 9:1 I l l o, 22•1, n l

seed bunks, 81, 82, 83, 93 n9 Seeds of Change, Inc., 79-85, 80 self-health, 86, 1 1 5-21 informational bodies, 1 28-32 non-western cultural influences, 1 1 9-28, 141 and risk management, 132-6 and self-contextualisation, 138-41 and self-knowledge, 136-8 self-knowledge, 1 1 3, 1 1 5, 1 36-8 self-transformation, 1 1 3, 1 1 9-21 ' selfhood', 4 1 -2 sexual reproduction, 88, 2 1 8, 220 Shay, D. and Duncan, ]., 204, 206 sheep, 76, 77, 86, 8 7, 88 Sholl, S., 1 76 Siegel, B., 1 1 9 Simonton, C.O. et a!., 1 30 skin as global market, 105-7, 106 virtual, 25 Smith, N., 1 1 2 Sontag, S., 1 SO, 1 54 space, reconceptualisation of, 6 1 space travel, 27-8, 29 and foetus in amnia, 33-6 Spielberg, Steven, 1 98-208, 2 1 1, 2 1 2, 2 1 9, 225 n16 spirituality and nature, 1 1 3 - 15, 122-5, 138-9 Spivak, G., 158, 1 59, 181 Spontaneous Healing (Wei!), 120 Stafford, B., 1 29, 2 1 7 Stewart, Mary, 70-2 Stewart, Susan, 204, 205, 206 Stokke, V., 1 5 8 stories, power of, 1 9 7-8 Strathern, M., 20, 22, 47, 73, 75, 76, 78, 89, 149, 158, 1 73, 1 79, 1 83, 2 1 7, 2 1 8, 22 1 survivalism, 163-7 Swatch, 169 systems, 128, 129 theory, 129 Szerszynski, B., 1 42 nS, 143 n 1 1 Tagg, ]., 3 technologies, 22-3 cinema and screening, 196-7 cosmetics, 23-6 and environmental destruction, 3 1 -2, 133-4 of gender, 6-8 information, 1 70- 1 of representation, 55

nnd risk perception, l 33, 1 3ti space truvel , 2 7 -11, 29 .1ee also blotechnolo11y; phoi OI!I'IIphy thematisation practices, 1 69-70 theme parks model of consumption, 202-3 vs. museums, 2 1 2 third world, 101-9 time conceptions of, 5 7-8, 60, 61, 62 genealogical, 53-4, 2 1 9 Toogood, M . , 142 nnS and 6, 1 4 3 n 1 1 Toscani, Oliviero, 1 4 7-8, 1 52, 1 53, 163, 165, 169, 1 7 1, 1 73-5 trademarks, 73, 1 75 - 7, 1 8 1 -2 see also logos; brand(s) traffic between nature and culture, 8- 1 1, SO transgenic breeds, 85-6, 87, 88-90, 1 90, 1 98, 224 n3 OncoMouse™, 2 1 8 - 1 9, 22 1 , 222 Tsing, A., SO Tutsell, G., 1 76 2001 Space Odyssey, 35 UNESCO, 159-60, 1 74, 183 United Kingdom, 4, 76 United States, 4, 6, 98, 160 universalism, 2, 20, 26, 78, 97, 1 1 5, 1 39-40 universalist essentialisms, 84 Van Dijck, ]., 191, 195, 225 n7 Virgin, 70 Virilio, P., 6 1 , 62, 69, 165, 1 8 1 , 182 Virtual Skin, 23-5 visualisations of nature, 54-5

Walking with Dinosaurs, 223 Wei!, A., 120 Weiner, A., 146 White, H., 197 Williams, P.J., 1 80 Williams, R., 1 9, 21, 44-5, 78-9, 89, 90, 1 82 Wolf, ]., 3 Wollen, P., 205, 212-13 women and cosmetics industry, 105-9 and reproduction, 49-50 'world' products, 101-9 Yanagisako, S. and Delaney, C., 49-50 Yoxen, E., 189-90